Commentary
President Trump has outsmarted the Iranians, who appear to have counted on their supposedly incontestable mastery of the Hormuz Strait to frighten and intimidate oil-consuming countries, including many that until recently had been assumed to be American allies, and the Americans themselves, with the specter of high oil and gasoline prices. Despite the overwhelming military victory of the United States and Israel in the war, the ruling clique in Tehran had evidently concluded that the American receptivity to peace discussions was, in effect, the Americans suing for peace, and that the conditions stipulated by Trump for peace were just window-dressing for his domestic jingoistic supporters.
